"I have 120,000 names in my file. I need to find all of the ancestors' names where a "note" (biography, or other) has been added. Obviously, not all of the 120,000 names have a note or notes.

Is there an easy way to do this? I tried using the search feature, but I'm probably doing something wrong because it didn't work."

Our answer:

Diane - you were really close. Yes, using Legacy's Search tool is where you want to be. You just have to use reverse thinking. Look at the image below (click to enlarge). It shows you what to enter for the search condition.

Using the criteria as entered below, you will get a list of all individuals whose General Notes are not blank. In other words, you will get a list of everyone who has general notes.

Below is what the Search list looks like. It is a list of just those persons who met the above criteria (everyone with general notes). Here you can click on the Notes tab to view each person's notes. The list can also be printed. Or, for more advanced users, you can "tag" everyone in this list for quick reference later.

I'm being very bold here by saying you didn't answer the question that was asked. I read the question to be the same as the one I want to ask: how do you, with a single query, find individuals with not only a 'general' note but any note, i.e. birth, death, burial, etc.?

Thanks for the follow-up Ron. To do this, you'd need to perform separate searches for each of the Note categories in the Where To Look selection. Just use the "Add results to existing list" option in the lower left.